Levant Company handbook and book of remarks
Overview
This collection consists of two volumes associated with the Company Merchants of England Trading to the Levant, or the Levant Company. One is a book of remarks, providing a register of orders and letters from the Levant Company to its Consuls in Smyrna dating from circa 1730-1732, and the other is a commonplace book providing a collection of 193 Company ordinances, statistics of trade and manufacture, political documents affecting trade, descriptions of manufacturing, and handy lists.
Dates
- Creation: approximately 1719-1720; 1730-1732 [covering earlier dates]
Creator
- Company of Merchants of England Trading to the Levant (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
No access restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Spencer Library staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials.
History of the Levant Company
When charters for the Venice Company and the Turkey Company lapsed, Queen Elizabeth I of the England authorized the charter for a consolidated organization called the Company Merchants of England Trading to the Levant, or Levant Company, in 1592. This occurred a few years after England signed a treaty with the Ottoman Empire, giving English merchants better access to trade with that Empire, in competition with the French.
Trade expanded in the early 17th century, despite piracy and anti-Turk rhetoric from King James I of England. Membership in the Company averaged around 300 merchants, each of whom took an oath only to send merchandise to the Levant on his own account and not to consign merchandise to any but the Company's own factors, or agents. The Company's governance included a court or board located in London and two elected consuls in Izmir (now Smyrna) and Constantinople (now Istanbul).
Membership in the Company began declining in the 18th century, and the Levant Company was dissolved in 1825.
Extent
2 Volumes
Language of Materials
English
Physical Location
MS E101
Physical Location
MS G17
Physical Location
MS P186
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Hoffman-Freeman "Consignment 1" item 2; Hoffman-Freeman offer of March 2, 1970.
Subject
- Company of Merchants of England Trading to the Levant (Organization)
- Title
- Guide to the Levant Company Collection
- Subtitle
- Levant Company handbook and book of remarks
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by alh, July 2, 1970; alh, October 13, 1994. Finding aid encoded by mg, 2005. Finding aid revised by mwh, 2019.
- Date
- 2005
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Finding aid written in English.
- Finding aid permalink
- http://hdl.handle.net/10407/0989761104
- Preferred citation
-
Levant Company handbook and book of remarks, MS E101, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.
Repository Details
Part of the University of Kansas. Kenneth Spencer Research Library Repository